Groups of Palestinian rights advocates have assembled near the White House to condemn the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to Washington.
On Thursday, waving Palestinian flags and chanting against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, the demonstrators called on US President Joe Biden to uphold his campaign promise to advance human rights on a global scale.
“The US is saying it is sending a message of moral authority, moral responsibility, but then they stay silent when Israel commits violence against Palestinians,” a protester told an international news agency.
The activists underlined Israeli efforts to forcibly displace Palestinian families from their homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and the blockade of Gaza, where Israeli forces have wounded dozens of protesters in the past week.
The protestors urged Biden to end its policy of blank checks towards Israel.
“Biden has failed to deliver on his promise of conducting a human rights-centered foreign policy during his tenure… But we are here to stay, and he will listen to us whether he likes it or not,” Laura Albast, an activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the groups that organized the protest, said.
Biden was set to meet Bennett on Thursday, however the bilateral talks were moved to Friday as the White House turned its attention to the situation in Kabul, where two explosions killed and wounded people outside the airport. Among those killed in an explosion near Kabul airport where 13 US soldiers.
